Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Create a Folder Shortcut in My Files App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

The stock File manager app in Samsung Galaxy S5, My Files app, lets you to create folder shortcuts and they will be placed under the Shortcuts section in the main page of this app, so you can quickly access those folders without having to navigate through the folder trees on your phone.


How to create a folder shortcut in My Files app?
Generally, you can add folder shortcuts to the main page of My Files app by using two methods available: from the main page of My Files app or from the currently opened folder.

Method #1: From the main page of My Files app

1. Open My Files app.
2. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Add shortcut.
3. Tap Device storage to explore folders in the internal storage, or tap SD card to explore folders in the SD card.
4. Tap the required folder to open it.
5. Tap Done button.
6. A shortcut of the currently opened folder will be created under the Shortcuts section in the main page of My Files app.

Method #2: From the currently opened folder

1. Open My Files app.
2. Under local storage section, tap Device storage to explore folders in the internal storage, or tap SD card to explore folders in the SD card.
3. Tap the required folder to open it.
4. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Add shortcut.
5. Tap Add to My Files main screen.
6. A shortcut of the currently opened folder will be created under the Shortcuts section in the main page of My Files app.

Given the function, it'd better if you add shortcuts for your favourite folders or the most frequently accessed folders so that you can save more time since you can skip some steps that you used to do when accessing those folders especially if you have much files on your phone or if your favourite folders are located deep inside folder trees.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Show Hidden Files in My Files App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

I do believe that most of you have already known that all of Android phones, including with Samsung Galaxy S5, will read all files or folders which the names are started with a full stop as hidden files. To keep things simple and keep the display clean, the stock File manager app, My Files app, hides the hidden files by default. Thus, you will notice that when you add a full stop in front of a file or folder name, it will be invisible and the phone will be told to forget it and to not display the file in the related app, as the example if you add a full stop in front of a picture file name then it won't be displayed in Gallery app.

How to show hidden files in My Files app?
In case you want to find/view hidden files or folders then you can set My Files app to show all hidden files by using the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Settings.
3. Check the box next to Show hidden files to enable it.
4. All hidden files will be shown.

As a note, if you want to hide a file or folder, you'd better to remember the name or location so that when you forget the name you can show hidden files using the steps above and then go to the location to find the hidden file or folder, or when you forget the location you can easily find the hidden file or folder by searching it using its name.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Show File Extensions in My Files App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

My Files app is the default file manager app in Samsung Galaxy S5. You can use this app to browse through files in your phone or to manage your files, e.g: copying or moving files to SD card, deleting files, renaming files, etc. By default, this app only shows the file names and hides the file extensions in order to keep things simple and keep the display clean. FYI, a file extension is the character located at the end of a file name (separated from the file name by a full stop) which is used to indicate the file format/type and to tell the phone what app should run and open this file. For the example: sunflower.jpg then the file name is "sunflower" and the file extension is ".jpg" and this file can be opened in any app that can handle .jpg files.

How to show file extensions in My Files app?
In case you have to know the file extensions for certain purpose, then you can set My Files app to display the file extensions by using the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Settings.
3. Check the box next to Show file extensions to enable this option.
4. Now, My Files app will show the extensions of all files.

As a note, the file extensions in My Files app are read only characters which means you're not allowed to change it here. Thus, if you want to change the file format then you have to open that file in an app that will let you to save as or convert the file to another file format.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to View and Clear Download History in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Samsung Galaxy S5 is equipped with two pre-loaded Browser apps, Chrome app and Internet app. If you use one or both of these apps to download something then all download histories will be recorded at the same place in My Files app. You can view the download history to quickly open up a downloaded file. If needed, you can also delete some or all download histories, for instance when you want to clean up the download history or when you want nobody knows what you have downloaded in the past. Clear download history won't delete the actual files since it only deletes the logs of your download activities.

How to view and clear download history?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Tap Download history . All download histories of Chrome app and Internet app will be displayed here.
3. Open a downloaded file:
• Single tap the required download history.
• The downloaded file will be opened in the appropriate app.
4. Delete a single download history:
• Long tap the required download history to select it.
• Tap .
• The selected download history has been deleted.
5. Delete multiple download histories:
• Long tap the required download history to select it.
• Single tap another download histories you want to select.
• Tap .
• The selected download histories have been deleted.
6. Delete all download histories:
• Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Clear list.
• Tap OK button to confirm.
• All download histories have been deleted.

As a note, in case you use other third-party Browser apps, e.g: Firefox, Dolphin, Opera, etc to download something, then the download history won't be recorded in the download history in My Files app. Thus, if you want to view or clear the download history of a third-party Browser app, you can use the Download menu within the app.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Transfer Pictures to SD Card in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

If your concern is keeping the internal storage has free space enough to work properly, then one thing that you can do is by setting the SD card as the default storage in the Camera app so that all pictures or photos taken with camera will be saved to the SD card automatically. Even so, there are some pictures that will be saved to the internal storage by default, e.g: pictures taken with camera using certain mode, downloaded pictures from the Internet app, received pictures via Bluetooth/Wi-Fi Direct/S Beam/Android beam, screenshot, etc. For these pictures, you can manually transfer them, either by copying or moving, to the SD card so that they won't eat up your internal storage.

How to copy pictures to SD card?
Copying pictures will duplicate the original pictures and then paste them to the new place. It's more safer than moving the pictures since you won't get the risk of losing your files, but it takes more time since you will need to manually delete the original pictures to avoid duplicate files. To copy pictures, as the example, we'll copy some downloaded pictures to the SD card by using the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Under the Local storage section, tap Device storage .
3. Tap Download folder.
4. Tap and then select Select.
5. Select the required pictures you want to copy to SD card.
6. Tap and then select Copy.
7. Tap SD card .
8. Tap the required folder where the copied pictures will be placed in. Or, if needed, you can create a new folder by using the following steps:
• Tap Create folder button located at the bottom of the screen.
• Enter the folder name and then tap OK button.
• Tap the newly created folder to open it.
9. Tap Paste here button located at the top of the screen.
10. All selected pictures from the Download folder in the internal storage will be copied to the selected folder in the SD card.

How to move pictures to SD card?
Moving pictures will cut the original pictures and then paste them to the new place. It's more time saver than copying files since the original files will be deleted automatically, but you may get the risk of losing your files (some users reported that their files sometimes lost after they had finished moving the files). To move pictures, as the example, we'll move some downloaded pictures to the SD card by using the following steps:

1. Open My Files app.
2. Under Local storage section, tap Device storage .
3. Tap Download folder.
4. Tap and then select Select.
5. Select the required pictures you want to move to SD card.
6. Tap and then select Move.
7. Tap SD card .
8. Tap the required folder where the copied pictures will be placed in. Or, if needed, you can create a new folder by using the following steps:
• Tap Create folder button located at the bottom of the screen.
• Enter the folder name and then tap OK button.
• Tap the newly created folder to open it.
9. Tap Move here button.
10. All selected pictures from the Download folder in the internal storage will be moved to the selected folder in the SD card.

As a note, the steps above can also be applied to transfer (copy or move) other file types, e.g: video, music, etc. You just need to select the required files from the original folder and then copy or move them to the desired folder in the SD card. It's as simple as that.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Remove an Email Account from Gmail App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

The latest version of Gmail app, Gmail 5.0, has a new feature that will let you to add multiple accounts, either Google email accounts or third-party email accounts. By utilizing this feature, now you can easily manage all of your accounts since they are all now in the same place. In Gmail app, you cannot only add accounts, but also remove account with ease. It'll be useful when you want to remove unwanted or unused email accounts from Gmail app.


How to remove an email account from Gmail app?
Generally, there are two methods that can be used to remove an email account from Gmail app: from the Gmail app itself and from the settings menu. Also, please note that these methods only remove email accounts from your phone and you can still re-add them in the future.

Method #1: From Gmail app itself

1. Open Gmail app.
2. Tap located at the top left corner of the screen.
3. Tap the currently used email address and then tap Manage accounts to view all accounts that have been added into Gmail app. Google email accounts will be labelled with this icon , while the third-party email accounts will be labelled with this icon .
4. Remove a Google email account:
• Tap the required Google email account you want to delete.
• Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Remove account.
• Tap Remove account button.
• The selected Google email account has been removed.
5. Remove a third-party email account:
• Tap the required third-party email account you want to delete.
• Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Remove account.
• Tap Remove account button.
• The selected third-party email account has been removed.

Method #2: From the settings menu

1. Swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the User and backup section and then tap Accounts .
3. Remove a Google email account:
• Tap Google.
• Tap the required Google email account you want to delete.
• Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Remove account.
• Tap Remove account button.
• The selected Google email account has been removed.
4. Remove a third-party email account:
• Tap Personal(IMAP).
• Tap the required third-party email account you want to delete.
• Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Remove account.
• Tap Remove account button.
• The selected third-party email account has been removed.

As a note, removing a Google email account will make this account can't be used to access other Google apps or services in your phone, e.g: Play Store, Youtube, Hangouts, etc.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Clear All Cached App Data in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

When an app in your phone is misbehaving, clear the app cache is one of the most common methods to fix the problem. Clear the app cache can also be done to free up some space though it's only temporary since the app will re-create the cache once you run the app. However, if your concern is to free up some space, it'd better if you clear all cached app data. It'll save you more time than if you have to clear the cache manually, app per app.

How to clear all cached app data?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the System section and then tap Storage .
3. Tap Cached data to clear all cached data for all apps.
4. Tap OK button to confirm.
5. All cached app data have been cleared.

As a note, if you'd like to clear all app caches periodically without having to do the steps above again and again manually, you can install a third-party app from the Play Store that has ability to clear all app caches in a regular basis, e.g: App Cache Cleaner, Cache Clear, etc.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Clear App Cache in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Some of you may already know that the phone saves the app cache in order to improve the app performance and make it load faster. In a normal state, the app cache shouldn't cause any problem for your phone, but it sometimes can be corrupted and cause the app to misbehave or experience an error, for instance the app crashes, the app is not working properly, the app runs slower than usual, etc. In this case, you need to clear the app cache to fix the problem.


How to clear app cache?
There are two methods that can be used to access the clear cache option: from the apps menu and from the app manager.

Method #1: From the Apps menu
This method can be applied for all apps that are listed in the apps menu. But, as the example, we'll try performing clear cache for Internet app from the apps menu by using the following steps:

1. In Home screen, tap Apps to go to the apps menu.
2. Tap and hold the Internet app icon and then drag it to the App info icon located at the top of the screen.
3. In the App info screen, tap Clear cache button.
4. The Internet app cache has been cleared.

Method #2: From the App Manager
This method can be applied for all apps even when the app is not listed in the apps menu. But, as the example, we'll try performing clear cache for Download manager by using the following steps:

1. Swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
2. With the settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Applications section and then tap Application manager .
3. Swipe the screen from the right to the left to access the ALL screen.
4. Scroll down to find Download manager, and then tap it.
5. Tap Clear cache button.
6. The Download manager cache has been cleared.

As a note, if you have cleared the app cache, the app will re-create cache when you re-run the app and it can slow down the app. Once it is completed, the app will work normally.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Add a Third-Party Email Account in Gmail App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

If you used to manage your non-Gmail email accounts in the stock Email app, now you can add and manage them in the Gmail app since its latest version, Gmail 5.0, has a new feature that will let you to add third-party email accounts, e.g: Yahoo, AOL Mail, Outlook, etc. By adding all of your email accounts(either Gmail or third-party email accounts) in one place, you'll be able to save your time because you can switch between accounts and manage them with ease.

How to add a third-party email account in Gmail app?
As the example, we'll try adding a Yahoo email account in Gmail app. See the following steps to do so:

1. Open Gmail app.
2. Tap located at the top left corner of the screen.
3. Tap the currently used email address and then tap Add account.
4. Tap Personal(IMAP/POP) and then tap OK button.
5. Enter your Yahoo email address and then tap Next button.
6. Enter your Yahoo email password and then tap Next button.
7. If needed, you can configure the account options here, such as: sync frequency, download attachment settings, etc. Tap Next button to continue.
8. If needed, you can change the account name and the name that will be displayed on outgoing messages. Tap Next button.
9. Your Yahoo email account has been added.

When you have added a third-party email account in Gmail app, you'll see a new circle representing your account. If a Gmail account is represented with the default icon or your Google profile photo, then a third-party email account is represented with the first letter of the name you've set to be displayed on outgoing messages, for instance if you have set the name with "My name" then the icon will look like this icon .

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Send an Email Message in Gmail App in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

The floating red compose button is a new feature that can be found in the latest Gmail version, Gmail 5.0. This button gives Gmail app a new look since it replaces the regular-compose-email icon that you used to find on the action bar. This button will also let you to easily access the email composition window since it's always accessible regardless the inbox category or the email label that is being opened.

How to send an email message in Gmail app?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Open Gmail app. By default, the primary inbox of the currently used account will be displayed.
2. Tap located at the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. By default, the From field will automatically be filled with the email address of the currently used account. But, if you have added multiple accounts and want to switch to the other one, then you can easily do so by tapping and then select the required account you want to use to send the email message.
4. In the To field, enter the recipient's email address. While you're typing, all matching contacts will be displayed and you can select one of them.
5. In the Subject field, enter the subject of the email message.
6. In the Compose email field, write down your message.
7. If needed, you can attach files in your email message by using the following steps:
• Tap at the action bar and then select Attach file.
• Tap at the top left corner of the screen and then select the required category where the files you want to attach are placed in.
• Select the required file you want to attach.
• If you want to attach some files at once, you can multi select them by tapping and holding the first file and then single tap the next ones. Tap Open to attach the selected files.
• The selected files will be attached.
8. Tap to send your email message.

Basically, sending an email message in Gmail 5.0 has a similar way as you used to do in the older version. The difference is now the icon to compose a new email message is displayed as a floating icon and is located at the bottom of the screen.